Hummingbirds consume bugs for protein and nectar for energy. Nectar from flowers is 21% – 23% sucrose which is basically regular table sugar. It is therefore, quite inexpensive and easy to make. If you want to know how to make your own hummingbird food, you should know making nectar is far easier than making bugs. There is one popular recipe you can use to make hummingbird food at the comfort of your home ( http://www.hummingbirdfoodrecipes.com/ ).

The recipe:

The home recipe is very simple. You will need get the ingredients and follow a simple preparation process. The ingredients required are:

The method for preparation follows three main steps:

Mix 1 part table sugar to 4 parts water in the pan. For example, you can use 4 cups of water for every one cup of table sugar. Make sure you only use cane sugar. If the label on the sugar container does not mention cane sugar, the content is probably made from beet sugar. Although this type of sugar may work, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that suggests that birds in general prefer cane sugar. Avoid using other sugar substitutes such as brown sugar, molasses, turbinado, corn syrup, raw sugar, Jell-O or honey. These are great substitutes for cooking normal human food as they each offer a different flavor. However, when it comes to birds, these alternatives may not work in a similar fashion. Instead, they may cause discomfort and sometimes health complications arising from consumption of such sugar substitutes.

Never use any artificial sweeteners. Putting hummingbirds on a diet and/or subjecting them to sweeteners may be fatal to the creatures. These animals burn prodigious amounts of energy and need real sugar to ensure their metabolism runs smoothly. You should also abstain from using food coloring. The idea may seem viable but it will end up harming the birds. Since they consume so much nectar, food coloring is harmful even if used in low concentrations. If you do not own a red feeder and you want to attract the birds, tie a red ribbon on the feeder.

Place the pan on your heat source (the stove) and bring to a boil. Remember to stir the mixture while it is heating and only stop when all the sugar has dissolved. Do not boil the mixture for a long period as this will affect the ratio of sugar to water. Boiling serves the purpose of killing yeast and mold spores that might be in the sugar, as well as driving out any chlorine that may be in the water. Do not boil the mixture in an effort to make some kind of syrup. The boiling process will ensure the nectar lasts long both in your refrigerator and your feeder.

Before you pour the mixture into your storage container or feeder, let it cool. Remember to cover the storage container or feeder when you are cooling the mixture. A good storage container for the ‘hummingbird food’ can be a used 2 liter soda bottle. It is advisable to make a large batch of this mixture especially if you plan on feeding the birds often. Make sure any storage container (and obviously the feeder) is washed and rinsed thoroughly before you use it.